Delay

The community had noticed that recently GGG was curiously radio silent regarding the upcoming early access launch for Path of Exile 2 and the plans for the 3.26 Path of Exile 1 league. Yesterday we found out why when this video dropped informing us that there would be a three-week delay in the start of early access from November 15th to December 6th. There has been a spectrum of reactions from content creators, but I think for the most part the majority have been relatively positive. Sure there is a certain amount of disappointment and a modicum of frustration around changed plans, but clearly it seems like they understand the scope of what is about to be released into the world and how popular it is likely to be. I personally suffer from an abundance of things vying for my time, so I will not lament having a few more weeks before I am pulled in by the sirens song of Path of Exile II.

What I want to talk about this morning however is how game delays are generally always a positive thing. Last week I groused about how I struggle to find unbridled joy in gaming anymore, and I’ve come to the realization that in large part this is due to the fact that games keep releasing in an unfinished state. There are so many games that I have played where given an additional year of reworking the game, are actually in a pretty great state. I have my issues with the recent rebranding of New World but had that game been delayed six months to a year… I think it would be a far more successful game than it is currently. The game that I played when they launched Fresh Start servers, was a completely different experience than the buggy mess of a game that I played on launch. It almost hit a million concurrent players at launch and has never managed to attract more than a small fraction of that number after that point. You only get a single chance to make your first impression with players, and it becomes a massive uphill battle to convince them that the game is worth trying again.

Similarly, the poor performance of the game and the weird graphic glitches of Mass Effect Andromeda during press previews and early access effectively turned what was a pretty good offering into a constant meme. Within a week or so of the launch, every major issue with this game was fixed and I had a blast playing through the campaign. However, because of the poor rushed state, it was thrust out the door… it became the laughing stock of the internet and effectively killed the Mass Effect brand. Sure there is some attempt to continue the lineage of the original trilogy, but it will be once more an uphill battle to try and interest players in the franchise again. Had the game been delayed by a few months… we would probably be talking about the sequel or even a third game in the Andromeda series by now.

More recently we have the tale of Diablo IV, which admittedly is probably a bit different. The core problem with the game was that the developers had a flawed vision of what ARPG players actually wanted in a game like this. “D4 Bad” has become a catchphrase that has been turned into countless AI Slop song parodies… but has legitimately infected at least the Twitch audience. You cannot watch a single YouTube video on the game without someone commenting that. The thing is the game is honestly in a pretty great state right now for core gameplay. I didn’t like the campaign for Vessel of Hatred, but have had a blast playing through the endgame content on the new Spiritborn class. Do I think another year would have helped the game? Potentially… because that is essentially what it has taken to rework all of the bad systems. However, I am not sure it would have made much difference because it was the extremely negative feedback that forced a change in direction.

I think there are studios that have managed to balance the need for pushing a game out there and getting some revenue with wanting to make sure the final release of the game is a polished product. The early access incubation period certainly helped Baldur’s Gate III turn into the exceptionally polished product that we all enjoyed, and that broke concurrency records at the time for a single-player experience. I think had something like Diablo IV launched into early access and then later had a 1.0 release once the majority of the system changes were made, it might have been less of a meme. This is essentially the model that Grinding Gear Games is trying to follow with Path of Exile 2, and I am hoping it bears similar fruit. There already seem to be a number of significant shifts in the gameplay from the first game, and I am uncertain how those will shake out. I am hoping an extended early access period will give them time to react to player feedback and solidify the game experience. I know at least mentally I treat an early access game a bit differently than I would a AAA Game launch, and that extra bit of forgiveness gives a game the chance to potentially improve for the better.

So if Grinding Gear Games has come out and said that they need some more time to make sure the servers are stable, then I am of the mind to give it to them without grumbling. While this is an early access release, there are still going to be a heck of a lot of eyes on the game and expecting something playable. I know the Last Epoch 1.0 release was severely hampered by server problems, which has I think kept them from hitting anywhere near the same concurrent numbers of subsequent releases. Anyways I am good with the delay, and it seems like we have officially entered spoiler season for the upcoming POE2 Early Access. Yesterday they released the above image showing off some uniques that will be returning from POE1 and that have received a bit of a “glow up”. While I cannot think of a single build that would want all of these items, it has been interesting to see just how much better they look in the new client. There is a Reddit thread that compares the graphics of what a character in POE1 looks like wearing all of these versus the above image. For me… I am hoping to be able to wrap up Final Fantasy XVI either tonight or tomorrow night and then likely start on Dragon Age Veilguard after that. I might take a break from all of this to play through the new Alan Wake II DLC on Halloween night in honor of the “spooposicty”. I also still want to return to Wayfinder at some point with Ace, but our schedules have not just lined up recently. Mostly the point of this morning’s post is to say… Delays are generally a good idea if a studio thinks it needs one. I am almost always going to be in support of this. The post Delays are Good appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.